kleintje

Kim, in Africa I just had to walk out the backdoor and look around to find anything (birds, lizards, insects,...). But here in China... Nothing much really where we live, unless you were referring to the Chinese? ;o)

Kim, thanks for the info! I've only started using PS a few months ago and it still feels more like messing around than actually getting some result... Let along the results being as good as this!

Your dreams are full of colours and magic! I think I'll just grab hold of the rope and fly with your balloon in your dream for a wonderful, amazing trip! Let's fly away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He reminds me of myself panting after I managed to get myself in a sitting position after I twisted my feet and knee a few weeks ago...

 

That or he's simply exhausted and got left behind by the others who are now sprinting up the steps as sort of desert after a 10 mile run?

This is a wonderful photo! You captured the details and the light in her hairs wonderfully! But still, I'm glad she's in your house and not in ours. But it might make me look at the spiders I encounter here in a different light...

Your comment on my (single) chameleon shot made me curious about your critters! I've just read through the thread here and you really have a big menagery at your place! Must be a lot of fun!

 

The photo of these two is marvellous! The way the two are so concentrated on that possible little prey. I also like the earth colours here a lot, with both predator and prey are rather well camouflaged in their environment.

Such deep, rich colours, not the least bit oversaturated and the dark background broken by the hint of some leaves underneath... I just love it!

 

If you do remember how you managed this effect, any chances of sharing it? :o)

I like the contrast between the colours a lot here, but I tend to prefer the crop Pnina did since then the in-focus part gets more attention and the OOF part is not too big it could become distracting. The crop also puts the separation between the two boxes away from the middle of the photo.

Lou Ann, wonderful image! I just love it! It takes me back to the days I would go with my mother to the shop where they sold fabrics to pick out some stuff. One of them had half a wall filled with these. You couldn't have depicted this in a better way!

Wonderful how the colours of the Great Wall contrast with the blue-whites of the background. It makes the Wall stand out from the background, while still forming a unity with it, being integrated in it.

 

I'm way down south in China at the moment, and after having heard and read about all those beautiful things in China, I'm a bit disappointed I don't find much of it in or around the city I'm living in. But I hope in the near future there will be some time to travel around and see more of the beautiful cultural and natural treasures of China. In the mean time, photos like yours allow me to dream of destinations I once would like to visit...

Beautiful macro! I just love all the details you captured at the centre of this flower, with the OOF blue petals adding to the overall soft feeling of the image and leading your eye back to the heart of the flower.

This is a great and original view of the tracks! I only think a bit more DOF in the foreground (on the wooden parts) might be better. Now your eye somehow stops at the focused part, with a bit more DOF in the foreground, it would lead the eye more into the photo.

Pnina, what I forgot to mention in my previous note is that I only know the situation in a small part of one country. It's dangerous to generalise these things. I don't know about the actual situation in Mali (or the places you have visited there) and it might as well be different. What made me react the way I did were the expressions on the faces of the women, which resemble so much the expressions I remember from Tanzania.

He looks like he's one big unhappy fish! Sort of like he just bumped into the glass and got an unwanted facelift out of it...

 

I feel however that the overall image is a little too soft (probably because of the glass of the aquarium?), but who am I to say anything? I've tried many times to capture fish in an aquarium, but never succeeded (they somehow won't pose for me and all I could post would be photos of blurs in the water or half fish... ;).

I agree with Pnina. Your eye is immediately drawn to the darkest point here, after which you start exploring the rest of the photo. I also like how the fence breaks the white field in the bottom part and adds an extra point of interest.

I don't have the slightest clue to what you have done here, but it definitely gave a great and intriguing result! Difficult to take my eyes off it...

True, but if I had to choose, I would go for this wonderful photo of yours! :o)

Pnina, maybe I didn't express myself all that well. By joy in life I don't mean they go through life laughing, but more that they don't need more and more every time to be able to enjoy life.

 

I've lived for nearly three years in a village in Tanzania (these days it's officially a small city, but nothing really has changed according to life standard to obtain that status, it had only to do with the growth in number of people). I have seen people living in very different conditions, and they do know there's another way of life, and they also know they are having a hard time, but the overall feeling that I still have is that they do have more joy in life than the average person from Europe, America or wherever you want to situate the developed world. And I think that joy has a great deal to do with the fact that they really do live in a community, there are always people or family around to help, women work together and people really are in contact with each other, something we in the West have all forgotten about...

 

As for your project, I think it is great what you are doing. Too many women still die giving birth because there is no place at hand where they can go. Also following up the children after they are born is still very important.

In that case, give her a very big hug for me! :o)

A jellyfish aquarium??? We're already having a hard time with our fish... I can imagine jellyfish are even harder to keep, mainly being saltwater animals and needing some sort of current in the water... I wonder, why can't people just leave them where they belong?

A beautiful capture of two beautiful children! It's kind of funny how they both focus their attention to something completely different, also one being very serious, the other almost smiling.

It's hard to take photos in Africa since the sunlight gets too hard very fast. I think you managed very well here to get the details of the group sitting under the trees with their produce to sell without having the brighter parts being completely washed out.

 

And, sorry for the men around, but also typical here, women at work and the man in the back taking a nap... ;o)

This brings back a lot of memories... Though I've never been in Mali, the colours and the attitude of the women is so similar to where I've been. Aside from the things already mentioned above, what strikes me is that, although these people are living in harsh conditions, they somehow manage to enjoy life. It's something in their attitude, in their eyes. A laugh is never far away. They take life as it comes, something we in the Western world have long forgotten about, even though we might have all material things we want. (and I'd better stop rambling, because I could go on for quite a while on that topic...)

The thumbnail already made me laugh, the 'real' image only made it better! Great capture!

Wonderful effect created by your use of the light. Maybe you could also try one with a bit more colour in it? I've seen some marbled greyish-black eggs on the markets here if that might help...

 

And, just out of curiousity, how many chicks did you get out of these? ;o)